ITS in Academics

Academic institutions are facing challenges to keep pace with educating future transportation professionals about new ITS technologies, as well as to adapt their engineering curriculum to provide the multidisciplinary approach required for effective implementation of these solutions. The PCB Program is working with college and university educators and other learning providers to identify the resources that the Program can provide for use in the classroom and the course materials that these organizations can share as online resources. Discovery-based learning, with its emphasis on hands-on activities and public participation in research, offers opportunities to enhance and extend traditional classroom offerings to students and faculty alike.

Ideas being explored include the following:

• Providing access to professionals from the peer-to-peer program,
• Inviting university researchers to participate in ITS test beds and other hands-on learning opportunities,
• Developing course materials and online curriculum to be provided to faculty,
• Facilitating better access to information about ITS careers,
• Offering case studies or pre-designed workshops/projects for student teamwork, and
• Sponsoring research grant competitions.

The ITS PCB Program now offers two ITS Case Studies, Adaptive Signal Controls and National ITS Architecture,
as learning tools for higher education instructors and students.